Global Funeral Parlour to resume full operations Thursday afternoon after blackout

The Global Funeral Parlour in Hung Hom has partially restored power after Sunday's blackout, with full operations expected to resume by Thursday afternoon. 

The outage disrupted services at the five-story funeral home on Cheong Hang Road, limiting operations for several days. 

The Global Funeral Parlour confirmed that lighting, ventilation systems, and some air-conditioning in the funeral halls have been restored after emergency repairs. 

It is said that the repairs are ongoing to bring other facilities back online, including the remaining air-conditioning units and the cargo lift.

Speaking on a radio program this morning, chairman of the Funeral Business Association Cheng Chi-kit described the outage as hitting at the worst possible time, as Hong Kong experienced its hottest day on record. 

"The biggest impact was the air-conditioning and ventilation in the mourning halls," Cheng said. He explained that traditional ceremonies often involve extensive incense burning and the ventilation failure left grieving families in far-from-ideal conditions. 

He said that the outage triggered multiple lighting failures, affecting about half of each impacted floor. 

Mortuary unaffected 

As for the storage of the deceased, Cheng confirmed that the mortuary in the basement was not impacted by the power failure. Citing Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, which operates the facility, he said the top priority had been to safeguard the remains. 

He added that the incident should serve as a warning for the entire industry to review and strengthen their electrical systems.

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓